Jerry Holkins (born Parkinson"Holkins is a combination of Holcomb (hers) and Parkinson (mine)." https://twitter.com/TychoBrahe/status/12073336701; February 6, 1976) is an American writer. He is the co-creator and writer of the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

'' Penny Arcade'' along with its artist

Mike Krahulik Michael Krahulik (; born September 25, 1977) is an American artist for the webcomic '' Penny Arcade'' and co-founder with Jerry Holkins of Child's Play, a charity that organizes toy drives for children's hospitals. He goes by the online moniker ...

. Holkins sometimes uses the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

"Tycho Brahe", which is also the name of a Penny Arcade character based on Holkins. Holkins is a co-founder of

PAX Pax or PAX may refer to: Peace * Peace (Latin: ''pax'') ** Pax (goddess), the Roman goddess of peace ** Pax, a truce term * Pax (liturgy), a salutation in Catholic and Lutheran religious services * Pax (liturgical object), an object formerly ki ...

(originally called the Penny Arcade Expo) a series of gaming festivals that began in 2004 and has been held around the world. He is also a co-founder of Child's Play, a multimillion-dollar charity which organizes toy drives for children's hospitals. Holkins, along with Krahulik, was included in the

Time 100 ''Time'' 100 (often stylized as ''TIME'' 100) is an annual listicle of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, po ...

for 2010.

Early life

Holkins was born in

Auburn, Washington Auburn is a city in King County, Washington, United States (with a small portion crossing into neighboring Pierce County). The population was 87,256 at the 2020 Census. Auburn is a suburb in the Seattle metropolitan area, and is currently rank ...

and grew up at least partly in

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. He met future collaborator

at Mead High School, Spokane in 1993 or 1994 through the

school newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also repor ...

, where they became friends. After graduating high school, Holkins and Krahulik shared an apartment together. Holkins moved to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

around 2000.

Career

Penny Arcade

Holkins created the webcomic '' Penny Arcade'' in 1998 with

, with Holkins writing and Krahulik illustrating. According to an oral history, the two submitted cartoons to a contest run by a magazine in 1998. The magazine did not accept them but the creators sought other places to publish them, and worked with a site called looneygames.com to create what would become Penny Arcade. The strip initially ran once a week. Around a year later, they created their own website for the strip. In addition to the comic, Holkins wrote accompanying blog posts. Initially, this was partly because the format of their website left blank space. Holkins says that while now the posts are a key part of the site, when they first started he would delete each post to make space for the next one so the early posts are lost. These posts are often

computer and video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback ...

commentary, but also include personal reflections or rants. According to Julia Swan of the Museum of History and Innovation, ''Penny Arcade'' was one of the first, if not the first, highly successful webcomics. By 2000, ''Penny Arcade'' was profitable enough that Holkins could quit his day job. As of 2010, the strip was running three times a week and had about 3.5 million readers. Holkins is also the basis for one of the two central characters in ''Penny Arcade'', "

Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe; generally called Tycho (14 December 154624 October 1601) was a Danish astronomer, known for his comprehensive astronomical observations, generally considered to be the most accurate of his time. He was k ...

". Holkins and Brahe share similar interests and personalities, though their appearances differ; for example, Tycho has mussed hair and sideburns, while Holkins's head is shaven.

Child's Play

Holkins, along with Krahulik and their business manager

Robert Khoo Robert Khoo was the President of Operations and Business Development of '' Penny Arcade'' from 2002 until 2016. He was the Business Manager for the company and the Show Director for PAX, the largest consumer gaming show in the United States. Kho ...

, founded the charity Child's Play in 2003. Child's Play is a

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

that donates toys and games to children's hospitals worldwide. The charity was founded in part to refute mainstream media's perception of gamers as violent and antisocial. As of 2017, Child's Play had processed $44,538,978 in donations since its inception.

PAX gaming conventions

PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving

tabletop Tabletop may refer to: Mountains * Table Top Mountain in Rangeville, Queensland, Australia * Table Top Mountain (New York) * Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa * Tepui, flat top mountains in South America Places * Tabletop, New South Wale ...

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

, and

video gaming Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback ...

. PAX is held annually in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

in the United States; and

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in Australia. PAX was originally created in 2004 by Holkins and Krahulik because they wanted to attend a show exclusively for gaming. Defining characteristics of the shows include an opening keynote speech from an industry insider, game-culture inspired concerts, panels on game topics, exhibitor booths from both independent and major game developers and publishers, a

LAN party A LAN party is a gathering of people with personal computers or compatible game consoles, where a local area network (LAN) connection is established between the devices using a router or switch, primarily for the purpose of playing multiplaye ...

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

, tabletop gaming tournaments, and video game freeplay areas.

Other work

Holkins and Krahulik played Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition in Seattle for a day prior to its release, with Krahulik, Chris Perkins from

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for ga ...

Scott Kurtz Scott R. Kurtz (born March 15, 1971) is an American webcomic artist. Known for creating the daily online comic-strip '' PvP'', Kurtz is among the first professional webcomic creators. Career Kurtz was born to a Catholic household in Watsonville ...

of PvP, and

Wil Wheaton Richard William Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', Gordie Lachance in the film '' Stand by Me'', Joey Trotta in '' Toy Soldiers'', ...

. Jerry is also featured in the

Dungeons and Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). ...

4E and 5E podcast, playing a character named Omin Dran, a Cleric of the Goddess Tymora (formerly Avandra), and CEO of an adventuring party named Acquisitions Incorporated. This has expanded into another streamed game entitled Acquisitions Incorporated: The "C" Team. This work has led to official D&D products featuring the Acquisitions Incorporated concept and characters. Holkins wrote ''The Lookouts'', a comic which imagines a

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts may refer to: * Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement. * Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement. * An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are ...

-like group in a fantasy setting. Initial versions were written by Holkins and illustrated by Krahulik, while the final version was also co-written by Ben McCool, with art done by Robb Mommaerts and colors by Rainer Petter. The premise has also been adapted into a short live-action film. Holkins wrote a book of poetry called ''Lexcalibur'', featuring poems about D&D-style adventuring with illustrations by Krahulik. Holkins created a fictional fantasy series called ''"Epic Legends of the Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga"'' as a parody of generic fantasy fiction, and created a

wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...

for others to make up lore and backstory for the series. It rapidly grew in size as ''Penny Arcade'' fans joined in expanding the parody to describe the non-existent books, spinoffs, and life of the author.

Writing style

A review of ''Penny Arcade'' in 1Up.com said of Holkins, "Language itself, whether dirty or clean, is increasingly a focus

f the comic F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. His ...

as Holkins stretches himself to work his favored baroque dialogue and unusual words into the script."

Personal life

Holkins is married to his wife Brenna. They have two daughters, Samantha and Ronia. In a tweet, Holkins said that his surname "is a combination of Holcomb (hers) and Parkinson (mine)." Old versions of the Penny Arcade site credit the work to "Mike Krahulik and Jerry Parkinson". Holkins said in his Penny Arcade Podcast that he sings and plays guitar in the

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

The Fine Print, and that his band once opened for the band

Anal Cunt Anal Cunt, also known as AxCx and A.C., was an American grindcore band that formed in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1988. From its inception, the band underwent a number of line-up changes and never had a bass player. The band, known for its flippan ...

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Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

Penny Arcade
Holkins' main project
Oral history interview with Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (transcript)
by the Museum of History and Innovation. {{DEFAULTSORT:Holkins, Jerry 1976 births Living people Penny Arcade (webcomic) American comics writers American male novelists American critics American webcomic creators Writers from Seattle Writers from Spokane, Washington Collaborative fiction American fantasy writers Video game critics Video game writers Novelists from Washington (state) Game Developers Conference Ambassador Award recipients Place of birth missing (living people)